Stille Nacht
by Mein Liebling
Summary: It was Christmas, 1914, and Neville made peace. [Christmas Truce!AU, Historical!AU, WWI!AU but happy!]


_Stille Nacht! Heil'ge Nacht!  
>Alles schläft; einsam wacht<br>Nur das traute hoch heilige Paar.  
>Holder Knab' im lockigen Haar,<br>Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh!_

* * *

><p>It was cold.<p>

It was dark.

It was France, it was December 25th, and it was 1914.

Snow was falling softly into the trenches, covering the shivering men with the light flakes that would soon melt off come the sun. Lights were hanging from every wall, men were stationed at every vantage point, and every once in a while someone would look up carefully with the scope to see if there was any change with the enemy.

A few men were speaking quietly to each other, bartering their sparse rations or telling stories about back home. Cedric, one of the surgeons they had, was carefully tending to one of the wounded, who was hit in the shoulder with a bullet, but should be fine.

Neville sat alone on one of the crates of gunpowder, anxiously wringing his hands as he waited for one of the mail carriers to arrive. It wouldn't be long.

"Weasley," The man handed a letter to the sullen redhead, who was bowled over a game of chess.

"Potter," Harry gave a nod to the man and grabbed it.

"Diggory," Cedric was the only one who gave a smile.

"Longbottom," Neville grabbed the letter and tried to smile, although it came out slightly weak.

The man continued on handing out letters, heading down the long thin trench line, and soon disappeared from sight.

Neville opened his letter quickly, as soon as his shaking hands could, and smiled when a picture of his friend fell out. Luna was smiling dreamily at the camera; dressed in what he could tell was a bright yellow dress and flowers in her hair. She was so detached from the War- from the world itself even- and it was so calming to see she hadn't lost her innocence about it. Neville reached into his pocket and took out a well-worn blue box, the word 'chocolate' written once brightly on the front but was now faded, and placed the picture inside the box.

He held it tightly in his hands for a few moments, before setting it back into his pocket, making sure it wasn't going to fall out.

Neville leaned his back against the wall of the trench and moved his fingers through his gloves, trying to keep them warm.

"…_Stille Nacht… Heil'ge Nacht…"_

It was soft.

"_Alles schläft… einsam wacht…"_

Cedric started humming it as the voices' became louder.

"…_Nur das traute hoch heilige Paar…"_

Weasley and Potter looked up from their game and listened with pensive looks on their face.

"_Holder Knab' im lockigen Haar…"_

The enemies' voices were haunting, and sent shivers down his spin, but Neville had never felt so calm before, so _peaceful._

"_Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh."_

Neville opened his mouth. "S-Silent night,"

Cedric grinned. "Holy night,"

"All is calm, all is bright…"

"_Lieb' aus deinem göttlichen Mund..."_

"Holy infant… tender and mild…"

"_Da uns schlägt die rettende Stund…"_

"Sleep in heavenly peace…"

The voices trailed off.

"Merry Christmas, everyone." Cedric said.

"Merry Christmas."

The sun gradually came up. Gifts were exchanged between the members of the troop, good-natured hugs were given, and Harry graciously gave everyone a small piece of chocolate. It was a good day.

The voices started again.

"_Ihr Kinderlein, kommet,  
>O kommet doch all!"<em>

Cedric yelled out, before they could start again, "Dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh-"

"_Zur Krippe her kommet,  
>In Bethlehems Stall!"<em>

Harry joined it, with bright eyes. "Over the hills we go, laughing all the way- ha! Ha! Ha!"

"_Und seht was in dieser,  
>Hochheiligen Nacht,<br>Der Vater im Himmel-"_

Neville and Ron helped. "Bells on bob tails ring, making spirits bright, what fun it is to laugh and sing, a sleighing song tonight!"

"_Für Freude uns macht!"_

There were laughs coming from both sides, as they all sang Christmas carols off tune as loud as they could.

He couldn't think of a better Christmas.

Neville got up on his crate, his instincts overpowering his usual cowering self, and held up his hands.

Immediately the caroling stopped and Ron hissed, "Neville, what the bloody hell do you think you're doing?"

Neville didn't answer his face pale in the morning light as he watched the German's and their allies from their trench cock their guns at him with loud harsh whispers. He didn't understand what they were saying, but he hoped it wasn't 'Shoot'.

And then, another man, around his age, appeared in the German trench, his hands up and looking as nervous as Neville did, and the Englishman's eyes widened before he scrambled up the slippery dirt slope and out onto the battlefield.

"_Neville!"_

But Neville just staggered onto the wet grass as the other man did as well, and they stared at each other for a few moments before Neville gave him a wide smile and held out his hand. "I'm Neville Longbottom."

The German soldier took it quickly, and shook it heartily. "Mein name ist Otto."

"It's wonderful to meet you."

"Freut mich, sie kennenzulernen."

Neville looked around then, his eyes growing wide as he saw all the German soldiers and his troop trading food and pictures, Dean Thomas was giving a soldier a haircut as the other sat patiently on the ground, Cedric was laughing merrily with what Neville assumed was another surgeon, and Seamus Finnegan and Harry were introducing a group of the others to 52 card pickup.

There were no hard feelings, no despair or hopelessness, only a little awkwardness when words didn't transfer through, but that rarely happened.

Generals were talking strategies (none that they were using, of course, although Neville could see that Dumbledore was having a great time speaking with the blond man), everyone was passing around free biscuits or chocolate, and Dean had ended up starting a football game, although how he convinced everybody was a mystery to Neville, as Dean was the only football enthusiast.

Otto showed him a picture of a pretty young woman with a garnet ring on her finger. "Mein Verlobter." The German told him. He didn't quite know what to think of that picture, Neville could only hope that Otto came home from the war, but he quickly disregarded the thoughts and instead said, "She's beautiful!"

He pulled out his own worn chocolate box and showed him the picture of Luna.

"Sie ist hübsch." Otto said, and Neville beamed.

It was probably the best Christmas he had ever had. By far the weirdest, but definitely the best. Men were laughing and translating jokes that each other had never heard of before. The football game had gotten so popular that they had started taking bets on the teams, telling each other that 'Ludwig is a good player you are lucky to have him on your team' or 'You haven't seen Dean in action'. There were no hard feelings. Truces were created. Beer was flowing. It was a festival, a celebration, and Neville didn't want it to end.

It had to.

There was a distant sound of bombing that brought everyone's eyes to the sky, and then the game was dispersed, handshakes were given, crates were thrown back into the trenches and everyone was leaving.

Neville held out his hand to Otto, and didn't even think before he took out his blue box and handed it to the German, who looked stunned. "Nein, nein, Ich kann nicht-"

"Please."

Otto took it, but took out his own box, a small one, red, with an image of a small airplane on it. "Hier."

"What-"

"Nehmen sie es."

Then they shook hands, gave each other a quick hug, and slid back into the trenches, still clutching their gifts.

Distant sounds of bombings commenced, but Neville didn't play any mind to it, instead taking out the picture of Otto's fiancée and staring at her with soft eyes.

"Merry Christmas, Neville." Cedric told him as Ron and Harry brought out a tarp to cover their trench with.

"Merry Christmas."

* * *

><p><em>Stille Nacht! Heil'ge Nacht!<em>

_Hirten erst kundgemacht  
>Durch der Engel Alleluja,<br>Tönt es laut bei Ferne und Nah:  
>"Jesus der Retter ist da!"<em>

* * *

><p><strong>This is all historically correct as well.<strong>

_**Go watch the Sainsburys 2014 ad I cried. I legit cried. That is what inspired this, and I just, can't.**_

_**Merry Christmas everyone.**_

_**Prompts: Festival, despair, garnet, 'he didn't quite know what to think of that picture'.**_

_**I don't own HP.**_


End file.
